male guppy being a bully

This is a discussion on male guppy being a bully within the Livebearers forums, part of the Freshwater and Tropical Fish category; -->
I have a 20 gal tank with five male fancy guppies, 2 platys, 3 neon tetras and 6 glofish zebras. This one male guppy ...

I have a 20 gal tank with five male fancy guppies, 2 platys, 3 neon tetras and 6 glofish zebras. This one male guppy (a really small one at that) seems to be a bully. There are no female guppies. He only picks on the other males and has just recently started this. He's torn some tail fins off. What's going on? Is he trying to breed with them or is he being territorial or what?

I have had guppies before and I have had all males together. The males will sometimes display in front of the other males. I think that you might have to rehome the bully male or give it away for free. I know that some LFS will take the fish for free like Petco. Are you sure it is the male bully fish that is doing the damage to the others fins? I have noticed in my 55 gal. community tank that fish have their own little personality. If you have a problem fish you might have to seperate it into a breeder net or something before you find it a new home.

I have Tiger/Hybrid endler males all together and they will do their little mating dance infront of the other males but that is it. I have a friend that has a tank full of all male Black bar endlers about 80 of them and they seem fine. Sometimes you just have to get rid of the problem fish so that the rest of your fish don't get harmed or killed.

Thank you for your input. I'm not sure whether he's being a bully or if he's just "horney." Hahaha! I don't really know if he damaged the fins because it happened over nite. Unfortunately, the ones that were damaged ended up dying. My water quality is good. I may have had too many fish in the tank. Anyway, he's still following the other males around harrassing them.

This is bad -- I have a 5 gal. tank with two female bettas. I put him in there the other day thinking (like you said) to remove him from the tank. They frightened him almost to death! I felt so sorry for him I quickly put him back in the 20 gal and he was calm for about half an hour then back to the harrassing. We now call the betta tank "the torture chamber." I won't do that to him again. I may have to give him away.

Betta fish are mean. I would never put one in with any other fish. They are pretty but they need to be by themself. Maybe try putting that betta in a 2 1/2 gal. tank with a underground filter. I had one in a 2 1/2 gal. tank and the canister filter I had killed it as his fins got sucked up by the filter. I have never decided to replace him. They are good baby fry eaters to have around with excess fry babies. I think that you just have a mean male guppy. Have you noticed at the LFS that they are all together and you never see one picking on the other ones. I see my endlers doing the mating dance but thats it. I have not had any problems with excessive picking . Have you though on endlers? They are small and all males are really pretty and you can throw in some Red cherry shrimp with them and a cory and have a nice group of 10 or more of endlers as they are only about 1" big.

What are endlers? Are they a type of guppy? The guppies I have are the ones with the really fancy tails. This one is the only one that is a bully. I might check out the endlers just curiosity.

As for my bettas. I have two females together. They're pretty good with each other in a 5 gal tank. I would never put another fancy small fish in with them like that again. I felt so bad for him. They didn't actually hurt him, just scared the you know what out of him. And that was days ago so I guess he survived all right. LOL! Poor little bully!

I got introduced to endlers by someone on craigslist. The care is identical to guppies. They are thought to be a distinct species. Endlers will interbreed with guppies. To keep the species pure you should not mix with guppies. They are hard to find. Some aquarium stores sell them. Some places use them as feeder fish. They only get to be 1" when adults. The females are larger then the males. I started with a type called Black Bar endlers. They are really pretty with neon colors to them and look good with a dark gravel or background in your tank. Since they stay small about like a neon tetra you can have a nice group of them in a small tank. They are also good with Red cherry shrimp.

Right now I'm raising a Exotic Tiger/Hybrid endler pair. I rehomed all my back bar endlers on craigslist. This is a mix of wild endler and a guppy. The female is a guppy and the male is a endler. I was not able to find a Tiger endler where I lived but found a guy on E-bay that sells them. search endlers on e-bay. An other place is Aquabid.com. The place that has alot of different and exotic hybrids is swampriveraquatics.com
I found a web site that has a male Tiger endler that looks like mine Tiger Endler pictures by yimes - Photobucket